2011 Round up!

Dear friends of expandance,

Whoa - 2011 has been a busy year! We've worked hard, expanded and grown. Thank you, you who supported us by coming to see shows, by 'liking' and sharing videos and photos we posted on social media, by your kind donations, by giving up your time to help us out with events, and by generally being the wonderfully supportive and loving people that you are. 

This year, we performed new works at:

Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn, NY as part of SITE Fest
I.F.O.N.L.Y. Festival, Birr, Co. Offaly
Backstage Theatre, Co. Longford as part of LD Dance Fest
Fusion Dance Platform, Waterford, as part of Imagine Arts Festival
The Church Bar, Dublin (completely improvised performance)Back Loft, Dublin as part of Mamuska 
Block T, Dublin as part of TransversalCourthouse Arts Centre, Tinahealy, Co. Wicklow as part of Bealtaine

We hosted a dance talk at Riverbank Arts Centre as part of Culture Night 2011.

We gained a fiscal sponsor in the US, meaning you can now make tax deductible donations to expandance at any time through our 501(c)3 Non-Profit umbrella, The Field.

We volunteered our time to help raise awareness about Dance/NYC's census, the results of which were published last week. 

We took part in NACHMO - National Choreography Month.

We produced 4 short films:

* International Dance Day video for UNESCO I.D.D., edited by Lauren Auricchio and shot in Dublin, New York and Wicklow
* 'Úll' by Laurie Schneider (currently in post-production) 
* A video showing our Over 60s group Ré Órga, generously supported by The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, performing new work in Carlow. 
* A short dance film, 'Black Monday', made in collaboration with our Riverbank Arts Centre teenage group and film maker Joe Cleere.

We auditioned in Ireland and NYC for new dancers, and gained some new and lovely people to work with - two of those dancers - Irish Independent dance artist Ailish Claffey, and new Rock Om cast member Matthew Cichon, will be performing with us and Zoe Dance in Boston in the new year. 

We also turned 5! Founding members Laurie Schneider, Rachel Wynne and Alicia Christofi-Walshe managed to be in the same country, in the same city, and in the same bar on the same day we founded expandance 5 years ago. It was a special evening, and had some of been less jet lagged it might have gone on later than it did. I can't quite believe all that we've created and accomplished in those five years, it's remarkable, and I'm so grateful to all of you for your continued interest and enthusiasm in our work. 



The National Dance Archive in Ireland (University of Limerick) has begun a collection of expandance studio and choreographic notes, sketches, promotional materials and reviews from the last five years, and we're excited to continue to share our work with them. As a company, we're mad about documenting our process, so we were honored when the N.D.A. asked if they could archive some of our materials.

Thank you to The Field, Wickow Arts Council, Dance Ireland, Culture Ireland and all our donors for supporting us through our IndieGoGo campaign this year. 


We look forward to meeting more of you in 2012 - we have some exciting things coming up including performances in Boston, New York and Ireland, and more opportunities to meet the dancers in person.


Here's to a fabulous New Year for everyone!


- Rachel, Alicia, Laurie, Krista & co.